#5 Swellsharks
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Most sharks scare away predators simply by being, well, sharks. However, they do still have predators, and the smaller the shark species, the more predators there are. The swellshark is one of the smaller breeds, only growing to about 1 meter (3 ft) long, roughly the size of a small doberman. Swellsharks are bottom feeders, preferring to ambush crabs and unsuspecting cuttlefish over the risky thrill of chasing normal fish. An adventurous day means stealing lobsters from a lobster trap. And as far as defenses go, the swellshark is a master of disguise: When it’s threatened, it sucks water into sacs that curve around its belly, swelling up to twice its normal size. But then it does something even weirder—it bends its body into a crescent, grabs its tail in its mouth, and turns itself into a big, inflated ring. The result is something that’s just . . . hard to eat. And since swellsharks normally lurk in rocky crevices, the swelling effectively wedges them into their hiding spots. So even if a fish gets a hold of them, it won’t be able to pull out anything larger than a mouthful. It’s often referred to as the most awkward shark in the world.
But then it does something even weirder—it bends its body into a crescent, grabs its tail in its mouth, and turns itself into a big, inflated ring. The result is something that’s just . . . hard to eat. And since swellsharks normally lurk in rocky crevices, the swelling effectively wedges them into their hiding spots. So even if a fish gets a hold of them, it won’t be able to pull out anything larger than a mouthful. It’s often referred to as the most awkward shark in the world.
#4 Pompeii Worms Have A Living Shield
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“The hottest animal on the planet, but the most difficult to study,” is how the Pompeii worm, or Alvinella pompejana, has been described. Not only do these worms live 2,500 meters (8,000 ft) below the ocean’s surface on volcanic vents that heat the surrounding water to 80 °C (176 °F), they also have an annoying tendency to die when brought to the surface. For a long time, Pompeii worms were believed to be the most heat-tolerant animals on the planet. They grow to about 13 centimeters (5 in) long and live in tubes attached directly to the sides of “black smokers,” smoke-belching exhaust vents on the floor of the East Pacific Rise.
However, their claim to fame has been called into question. Using pressurized capsules, researchers managed to bring a few of the worms up to a lab and found that after 10 minutes of exposure to temperatures of 50 °C (122 °F), the worms died and their tissues hardened like a boiled egg—they were cooked. But the fact remained that Pompeii worms did indeed live in these temperatures, so they took a closer look and found that a layer of bacteria normally lived around the worms. They had a living shield that absorbed part of the heat from the scalding water like a fireman’s blanket. In return, the worms were producing a mucous layer that fed the bacteria—a perfect symbiosis.
#3 Anguilla Eels Can Walk On Land
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Anguilla eels, commonly known as European eels, live in the lakes and waterways of northern Europe and the UK. They’ve been recorded at lengths of nearly 2 meters (6.5 ft), though they’re normally only about half that size or smaller. But they don’t always stay where they’re supposed to—Anguilla eels can leave the water and slither across dry land for a short amount of time. They do this for two reasons—the first is to feed, although they usually stick to insects and earthworms. The second reason is to migrate.
Anguilla eels spend about 20 years in the same lake. But they start and end their lives 6,500 kilometers (4,000 mi) across the Atlantic in the Sargasso Sea. To get from their European lakes to the Atlantic, anguillas work their way up and down waterways using an as-yet-undiscovered navigation system. If the waterway is blocked—with a dam, for example—the eels leave the water and cross fields and forests to the next stream or river. Environmentalists are actually using that unique ability to build climbable “ladders” on dams and weirs to allow the eels to complete their migrations. On a slightly more terrifying note, the larger cousins of anguillas, conger eels, can also cross dry land, and also have the tendency to attack people.
#2 The World’s Largest Migration Happens Every Day
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The Sargasso Sea is perhaps the most unique body of water in the world. It doesn’t have any borders other than a series of converging currents that hold it roughly in the same place, even though it’s right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a body of water within a body of water—the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, and the Canary Current all hit it on different sides, with the Sargasso Sea acting as the calm center. It was called the “Sea of Lost Ships” by sailors because the air is unnaturally calm and ships could get stuck there for days or weeks.
Most importantly, the Sargasso Sea is an almost completely self-sufficient ecosystem. The sargassum, a floating seaweed that covers the surface of the sea, provides food and shelter for thousands of species, which in turn provide food for the sargassum through their waste. There are layers upon layers of marine life in the sea, from surface dwellers to deep-sea life over 5000 meters (16,000 ft) down. And at night, it’s the setting for the largest migration in the world—over 5,000 species comprising millions of sea creatures surge up from the deep to feed, then return to the bottom before dawn.
#1 Google Street View: Oceans
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Google Street View is a popular addition to Google Maps that lets you look at any location from street level. In 2007, Google sent a fleet of cars around the world to photograph literally everything. Then they took the photos and composited them into a long string that lets you “walk” any route with the click of a button. But that’s old news and hardly exciting. Street View: Oceans is sort of the same thing, except instead of looking at your ex-girlfriend’s house you can stroll directly into the Great Barrier Reef, or any one of dozens of underwater spots spread across six oceans. They’re adding more locations to the program as fast as they can, but so far they only have the reefs around the Galapagos Islands, Heron Island, Wilson Island, and Hanauma Bay, to name a few. This is part publicity stunt and part science project—while anyone can enjoy the tour, they’re also using the photos to monitor the growth (and decay) of the world’s most important coral reefs, which provide a combined home for a full 25 percent of all marine life.
SOURCE: listverse
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